The present invention is directed to a dispenser with an improved dispensing port that permits easy separation of individual sheets of cleaning wipes from a web of such material. In addition, the dispensing port is dimensioned so that excessive amounts of liquid cleaning fluid in the wipes are not strained off as the individual sheets are separated.
Cleaning wipe dispensers are convenient items that provide moistened sheets or towelettes for a variety of uses. Typically, cleaning wipes are formulated for specific purposes that run the gambit from infant wipes to, more recently, general household applications. Dispensers generally consist of a plastic container with a resealable dispensing port. A pre-moistened roll or stack of perforated sheets is stored in the container.
Frazier U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,514 discloses a dispensing nozzle with a rotating port. The port turns according to the direction from which the wet wipe is drawn in order to reduce the frictional force on the wipe as it passes through the port. Frazier teaches that this advantage causes fewer premature breaks during dispensing. The rotating port purports to allow the consumer to pull the wipe at any angle, however, a substantial amount of liquid is still removed from the wipe during dispensing. The nozzle has drain holes to allow the liquid to flow back into the container. The port consists of a node with a plurality of appendages with the node and appendages being contiguous to form a single dispensing orifice.
Urion U.S. Des. Pat. No. 296,765 discloses dispenser with a dispensing port with a circular node with three narrow slits as appendages. Similarly, Norton et al. U.S. Des. Pat. 354,225 disclose a dispenser with a pie-shaped node with two patterned appendages facing to one side.
Niske et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,895 disclose a dispenser for a perforated roll of wetted towelettes. The dispenser includes a dispensing nozzle having an orifice. One suggested shape for the orifice is narrow crossing slits with no center node. The narrow slits are designed to separate the roll at the perforations. A plurality of other shapes for the dispensing orifice are taught. These shapes include a tear-drop shape and two openings with tapered appendages narrowing to angles of sixty degrees or greater.
Doyle et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,017,002 disclose dispenser with a dispensing port having narrow crossing slits. The successful use of this design requires the edges to the slit to be in substantial contact in order to move the wipe toward the end of the slit.
Prior art dispensers are deficient in a number respects. While these dispensers will adequately keep moistened wipes from drying out, they do not permit the consumer to readily remove individual sheets from the roll or stack of sheets. This causes waste as more towelette material is removed than is desired. Moreover, once a towelette is detached, the rest of the roll tends to retreat (or fall back) into the container through the dispensing port which requires the consumer to re-thread the sheet from the container through dispensing port. Finally, the dispensing port of prior art dispensers tend to act as strainers that squeezed off non-negligible amounts of fluid from the pre-moistened towelettes as they pass through the dispensing port. To compensate for this, more cleaning solution can be used to impregnate the web material, otherwise, the towelettes that are pulled off are drier than expected.
The present invention is directed to a dispenser for pre-moistened cleaning wipes that permits consumers to consistently remove individual wipes without encountering the xe2x80x9cfall backxe2x80x9d phenomenon and with minimum loss of liquid solution.
In one aspect, the invention is directed to a dispenser for cleaning wipes that includes:
a container having an interior for storing the cleaning wipes wherein the wipes comprise a web of material; and
a dispensing port having a body that is attached to the container and that has an opening through which the web of material is threaded, wherein the opening defines at least two nodes that are in communication with each other by an open channel, wherein each node has at least two appendages projecting therefrom, wherein the open channel and appendages define a plurality of edges that frictionally engage the web during separation of a sheet of material from a remaining portion of web of material and wherein the opening is dimensioned so that following separation and detachment of the sheet, a fragment of web of material remains threaded through the aperture.
In a preferred embodiment, the body of the dispensing port includes a floor on which the opening is located and a ridge member projecting from the floor and wherein the height of the ridge as measured from the floor is sufficient to create a reservoir for temporary placement of a fragment of a cleaning wipe threaded through the opening.